Dinosaurs Birthday Dance

The common trait among the three words is that they are all banned by the Education Department of the New York City.

Modern mayors not only have a good idea about how much coca-cola is bad for your health: 12 ounces okay, 16 criminal (mayor of NYC banned selling large beverage city-wide); they also assure you that beef is better than chicken (mayors of Boston and Chicago ordered Chick-fil-A to be kicked out of city limit because of its owner's donation to religious family value groups).

The list of inappropriate words was assembled by the Education Department to be banned from textbooks and exams, because they might stir controversy among students. Other words include Halloween, poverty, divorce, disease, etc. Also a detailed guideline spelled out 50 topics that should be avoided, for example: ".. shouldn't include items that are potentially disrespectful to authority or authority figures or give human characteristics to animals or inanimate objects.

A spokesperson Robert Pondiscio stated that the intent is to avoid giving offense or disadvantage by privileging prior knowledge.

Across the Continent in the great state of California, schoolers gained rights to decide what gender they want to be on the day in school, when using restroom, etc., regardless what gender they put in the registration forms. Previous rules allow students to choose their gender, but require them to pre-register with the school. The new rules eliminated the inconvenience to update school records.

I Want Go To School!

"I want Go To School" was an official slogan of the 'Project Hope'. For over 20 years, schools were set up, and many children poor sponsored to go to school on private donations. If you are confused how come the No. 2 economic body in the world must rely on private donations for public education, you have to understand how the government income were allocated. Education and Health combined took less than 4% of the GDP. As a matter of fact, that's a clear violation to the education act passed many years ago, which mandates a 4% expenses on education. Even though China appeared a mighty military monster in neighbor's eyes, as a matter of fact, more money are spent in domestic suppression of human rights activists than on national defense. The bulk chuck of money goes to officials' cars, oversea trips and banquets.

A months ago, just days before the begin of the new semester, China's cities are driving migrant workers' children out of city limit in an coordinate op. In Beijing alone, 35 schools for low income migrant workers' children were shutdown and more than 14,000 children lost school. Reporters dug out an interview with Mr. Liu Limin, then Beijing Municipal Education Chief, now Deputy Minister of Education Department, who said in front of camera that people should not pay too much attention to low income children's need for school.

It is already a disgrace that the government not willing to spent a dime on citizen's education, but set up an official to collect private donations to build elementary schools. Amazingly, the government somehow deemed the education system in China was good enough, that they decided to use that money collected through 'Project Hope' to build schools in Africa. Believe it or not, most African countries had far better school system built than those in China. Google, Wikipedia and any data point to that. Perhaps building schools in Africa makes the communist regime look better, as the ruling class saw it. But, as people from Taiwan who questioned, how can we trust a government who does not treat its own citizen well, even when they try hard to kiss our ass?

A school age child was kneeing outside of a public school in Nanjing, capital city of Jiangsu Province. He wanted to go to school like other kids. He used to go to a school set up by private organizations that attend to low income migrant workers. That school does not require a residency ID, does not charge high fees, reuse or let students share textbooks and stationaries. Now all those private schools were shut down. When probed by reporters, the government officials said they would allow these children go to public school if they satisfy 5 conditions, which were hoops and loops that had 'mission impossible' written all over them. Two weeks later, in Beijing, only a hand of children were able to collect all required documents, but when they gathered at the Education Bureau, they were told to walk away.

September 1 was the first day of school in China.

A Frugal Education

Five little ones were on a bed surrounded by coal powders piled higher than the bed. Some were playing; some were sleeping at home of Yuan Lihai of Lankao County in Henan Province. These children were deserted by their parents, many with disabilities or chronic diseases. Since 1987, Yuan has raised up more than 100 kids like them on his own.

While China is building schools in Africa, Europe and in the US, few outside the country knows the frugal education system inside China. The world average public education expenses is 5.1% of GNP. The figure is 5.3% in developed countries. The South-Sarhara countries average 4.6%. India 3.5%. The poorest countries 3.3%. China: 2.3%. From another angle, 20% population of the world live in China, while the education expenses is 1.5%.

That Pen in His Little Hand

Because of many reasons, school kids sacrificed the most. Many promising lives were frozen in the moment when they were absorbing knowledge in their classrooms, before they got a chance to thrive. When a little body or a little girl were dug out of rubbles, we saw one thing in common, the pen in that little hand.

China, Hold On!
China, Be Strong!
China, Never Give Up!
China, China, We are so proud of you!